By Lamin Cham
Yaya Tamba, leader of the rival faction of the APRC which won all the 5 seats in Foñi, has said his group is vindicated by the results of the recent National Assembly elections.
The group, known as the No Alliance Movement, NAM, unseated all the National Assembly Members of the faction allied to President Barrow’s NPP in last week’s elections.
According to Tamba, the results have shown that the majority of APRC supporters did not approve a coalition with the NPP and Fabakary Tombong and his executive had defied the instructions of the party leader, Yahya Jammeh.
”We have made it clear that FTJ and his gang only carry the legal name, seal and logo of the party but the actual supporters are with us and that has been proven by the results which now reduced them to a skeleton. I took over this group only six months ago, went into presidential election without any sponsorship or budget and depending only on the contributions of supporters and now coming out with 5 seats is a tremendous achievement compared to parties that have been here since,” Tamba said.
Tamba accused the FTJ executive of reducing the once powerful and proud APRC to beggars.
He further disclosed that his group will expand its wings across the country and denied that they have campaigned on false promises in Foñi.
”We never claimed to have the powers to physically remove Ecomig soldiers from Foñi. No. We are aware that those things are done by government policy and so our message is for the people of Foñi to empower us with their votes so that we go to the National Assembly to try to influence policies that would ensure that foreign troops are not stationed in The Gambia among other things. I know the FTJ faction is spreading falsehood against us but our messaging has been very clear,” he said.
Commenting on the poor performance of the NPP, Tamba said the party is a tycoon party. “They believe spreading money and enticing people with materials can win elections. There are a lot of Gambians who would rather die in poverty than succumb to such inducement. The NPP has been humiliated beyond imagination. But the important message is that people should now believe us when we rejected the presidential election results. How can a party that claimed to have won all over the country with such a margin fail to win a single seat from Banjul to the entire Kombo? The answer is simple: The majority of Gambians do not have trust in Barrow or his government. Period,” Tamba said.
